From the Republica Christiana to the 'Great Revolution': Middle Ages and Modernity in António Sardinha's Writings (1914-25)

The writings of António Sardinha (1887–1925) have still not generated the interest they deserve in the panorama of studies on Portuguese historiography. A poet, politician, and historian isolated from the main academic circles, Sardinha was the leading doctrinal figure of the movement known asIntegralismo Lusitano,² founded in 1913 in the aftermath of the attempts to restore the recently deposed Portuguese monarchy. In the doctrine ofIntegralismo, the medieval period occupied an important place, both as a reference in national and European history and an example for a future political, moral, and spiritual rearrangement.